Tann the Goat
by DetectiveInspectorSydney
Summary: Aberforth Dumbledore's first goat.


**A/N: Prompt:** **A: Aberforth Dumbledore, Amanuensis Quills in Diagon Alley, Antipodean Opaleye, Arrow**

 **Additional Prompts: 1 (word) creature, 5 (dialogue) "What are you doing here?", 13 (phrase) under the bed.**

 **Word Count: 1254**

"Creature!" The voice was higher, but otherwise the perfect copy of Aberforth's mother. Aberforth, who had been sitting on his bed reading a Daily Prophet article about a recently discovered domesticated Antipodean Opaleye in a graveyard in Sheffield, jumped at his sisters entrance. Ariana was stood in the door, pointing below him, with a highly mystified expression.

It wasn't that Ariana never talked anymore, but it was fairly rare these days, and usually it took a minute to catch up with her. Her point, this time, however, was quite plain.

"Ari!" Aberforth kept his voice deliberately nonchalant and cheerful. "You found the box I wanted, thank you!" Aberforth deftly took the box marked "Amanuensis Quills in Diagon Alley" from his sister's hands, and placed it on the floor next to his new pet goat.

"Ari," Aberforth began carefully, "this is Tanngnjóstr." Ariana's face shifted to display something akin to puzzlement. "Okay, let's call him Tann for short. How's that sound?" Ariana gave him a smile of content. Aberforth, gently took her hand and led her into his bedroom. He closed the door quietly behind them, and lead her over to his bed where a little billy goat was nestled in some blankets. They knelt beside the bed, and Aberforth moved Ariana's hand to rest on Tann's head. She smiled wider. The goat stirred, and blinked, but mercifully stayed quiet.

"I bought him with my pocket money yesterday from a farmer. I was just waiting for the right time to tell Mother." It had been about six months since their father had been taken to Azkaban, and there was a lot of walking on eggshells going on in the Dumbledore house. Before the attack on Ariana, and the move to Godric's Hollow, Father had promised Aberforth that he could have some some goats to care for. Obviously, fate had had other ideas, and Aberforth had had to take matters into his own hands. He was going to tell his mother about Tann, he just needed to find the right moment…

A knock came at the door. Both Aberforth and Ariana jumped. "Ab?" Albus voice was muffled, but recognizable through the wood of the door. Aberforth scowled.

"What're you doing here?" he grumbled. Ariana had gone back to to placidly stroking Tann's head, who had moved out from under the bed, in order to better enjoy the attention.

"I just wanted to know if Ariana was with you? I ordered some new quills, and they've all been laid in a pile on top of my desk, but there's not box. I thought she might know something about it." Aberforth made a noise of impatience.

"Well, she doesn't, and neither do I, so why don't you just sod off?" Without warning, Albus pushed the door open.

"Really Ab, there's no need-" he was stopped short by the sight of a goat trying to eat his sister's hair. "Aberforth is that a goat?" The jig was up.

"Yes," Aberforth answered honestly. Albus' eyes moved to the box he had been looking for.

"I see, and what, may I ask, did the box with my quills have anything to do with your keeping a goat in your bedroom?"

"I was going to train it to use the box for its toilet. I was going to line it was newspaper and everything," Aberforth held up the discarded Opaleye article.

"But I was looking forward to reading that," Albus protested. Tann had moved on from Ariana's hair, and was now gently nuzzling her shoulder as she rubbed his ears.

"Don't bother," Aberforth replied, putting the first layer of newspaper down at the bottom of the box, "there isn't anything in it that you don't already know, and the writer's an idiot. He misspelled New Zealand at least three times." Albus grabbed Aberforth's forearm.

"I still didn't give you permission to use my box." Aberforth rolled his eyes and jerked away.

"You don't need it for anything. There are plenty of other boxes in the house, anyway."

"Then why did you choose mine?"

"Because it looks the most like a tray. It wasn't personal." Albus was skeptical about this, but decided to let it go for the moment.

"Fine. Putting all that aside, you're not seriously considering keeping a goat in your bedroom are you? Goats eat everything. Your room will be destroyed!"

"Well of course I'm not going to keep him in my room forever! I'm going to tell mother about him, and I'll be so persuasive that she'll have to let me keep him." Albus had his doubts about this, decided that avoiding yet another row would be best for everyone, and chose to change tact.

"Have you given any thought to when and/or how you are going to tell her? Is there anything I can do to help?" As much a pain in the neck as Aberforth could be, Albus really didn't want to see his brother disappointed over this. Apparently his phrasing worked, because Aberforth brightened up immediately.

"Yes actually, there is. I was hoping to move him out into the yard tonight. I figured if I make it look like someone left Tanngnjóstr-," Albus raised on eyebrow, which Aberforth met with a look of defiance, "-I bought him with my own pocket money and I'll decide what I call him! The muggle farmer down the road was calling him Arrow. What kind of name is Arrow for a goat? Besides, Ari already agreed to Tann for short. Ariana looked up at the sound of her name, nodded once, and then became reimmersed in petting the goat. "So, anyway. If we make it look like we found Tann in the yard, Mother is more likely to let us keep him right?" Albus thought about this for a moment. Normally he did not condone lying to their mother, but he understood how important goats were to Aberforth, and he'd already promised to help…

"I can help with that."

* * *

And so it was that the next morning Kendra Dumbledore was awoken at dawn by all three of her children, her youngest boy insisting that she get up and dress, as there was something outside that he _needed_ to show her. Kendra wanted to protest, but both of her sons were grinning so widely, and even Ariana boasted a little smile. She simply couldn't refuse.

The goat was no more pleasant in person than when she had seen Aberforth and Albus leading him down the stairs the night before. She'd been ready to confront the both of them, but knew how infrequently she found them working together without squabbling. Perhaps it made her a poor disciplinarian, but she trusted Albus' good judgement, as young as he still was, she had come to rely on him. Thus, she had concluded, that if Albus had decided this was something worth supporting she would let it play out. So she listened while Aberforth and Ariana showed her the note they'd found about the goat named Arrow (who Aberforth, apparently, had already rechristened) and she allowed her younger son to squirm a little bit as she pretended to make her decision. Albus was looking directly at her, giving nothing away, except with the surprise in his eyes as he registered her awareness. In the end Kendra Dumbledore agreed that Aberforth could keep his goat as long as he took care of it himself.

And thus began the saga of Aberforth's (and sometimes Ariana and Albus') [mis]adventures with Tann, and all the other goats that followed.


End file.
